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Skullcandy Grind ($59)
I do keep my ear out for Skullcandy headphones. Not because I think they're going to produce an amazing sounding headphone—though it's possible—but because they sell a lot of headphones and I want to know if they're treating all those sk8ers right. With the Grind, I think they sure 'nuf are.

That's not easy to do with a $59 headphone, I mean, how much can you really expect for $59? The answer is "not much". The trick is to know what to deliver, and what not to deliver. If there's genius in these…

Sound Quality
At this price point I'm not looking for a headphone that does a lot of things right, it's more about not doing anything terribly wrong. Cheap cans sonically fail in one of two ways: they're either too far from neutral overall and sound un-natural, or they horribly over-emphasize some spot in the response making them unlistenable—like a bloated bass or a screeching treble. I know that virtually amounts to the same thing, but there does seem to me to be a difference between something that sounds really weird, and something that causes you to wince in pain when listening…

Measurements

Raw frequency response plots show the Grind fairly close to the Harman Target Response. Bass boost is somewhat excessive and bleeds into the mids above 200Hz, which makes for a "thick" sounding mid-range response. Rise to the peak at 3kHz should start slowly much sooner, causing these cans to be a little laid back in the upper mid-range. Peak at 3kHz is a few dB too high, and remains so until about 10kHz where it comes down to an appropriate level. The overall shape of the curve, though close to…

On Monday it was raining lions and tigers all day, but four of the faithful eventually arrived, between an hour and two late. Except Mitch Corbin, musician (Suzy Bogguss, David Bromberg, Byron Berline, David Grisman) and project studio owner, arrived early. That was a good thing, because I gave him a solo audition. When the four others arrived, they each had a headphone to check out and shuffle around. Mitch stuck around to learn everyone's reactions and schmooze for the evening, and a wonderful time was had by all.

Mike…

Third in a series of planar magnetic headphone releases from Oppo Digital, and at $399 their lowest cost entrant to date, the PM-3 is intended as a planar magnetic headphone for portable use...and it delivers.

The PM-3 is a full-size, circumaural (around the ear), sealed headphone. The planar magnetic driver in the PM-3 is very similar to that of the PM-1/2. The primary difference is that the driver diaphragm in the PM-1/2 is oval and is slightly smaller and circular in the PM-3. Other than that, the driver is virtually…

Sound Quality
The overall sound quality of the PM-3 is very good indeed. In fact, it may be the most neutral sounding headphone I've experienced. My previous standard in that regard was the NAD VISO HP50, which in comparison now sounds a bit warm and thick. If the PM-3 does deviate from neutral I'd say it had a bit of extra upper-bass/low-mid energy, a bit extra lower-treble, and is slightly rolled off in the top octave. I heard it as very slightly "U" shaped due to the slight upper-bass/low-mid and low treble peaks...initially.

A slightly "U" shaped response means…

It's worth mentioning at this point that I have now measured three PM-3s. The first one seemed to have erratic behavior at around 6-9kHz. I received a second pair for measurement some months after the first pair; this second pair did measure differently and did not exhibit the behavior. I then grew concerned because I didn't know if I was seeing an early sample that wasn't quite up to snuff or poor manufacturing tolerances, so I requested a third pair be overnighted to me. The third pair did quite closely…

EQs, Cabbages, and Kings
So, I purchased the LCD-X. When my new Audeze phones arrived, I immediately discovered they have a bit less bass than the demos I had auditioned and a bit more upper midrange (around 5-7 kHz). In the upper midrange they are a bit more forward and resemble the upper midrange of the 3s that we had tested. In the bottom, they are a little lighter, and I definitely miss some bottom. Basically, the demo unit was more accurate (neutral) than the one I purchased. I bet this is normal unit-to-unit variance, but…

The First Lightning Cable Headphone
You'd think Apple would be first...or Beats. Nope. The folks at Philips Fidelio have yet again shown they're on the ball and have produced the world's first Lightning connector cabled headphones.

You can read more about the standard Lightning connector for headphone spec here, but basically it provides power for the headphones; a stereo digital audio signal to the headphone up to 24bit/48kHz; and a mono return channel for microphone audio up to 24bit/48kHz. There is also a second…

The High Res Mafia
In a previous episode I alluded to some 2496 master versions of albums which I have mastered which are currently available "only" on CD. When these 2496 versions become available to the public, they will sound warmer, purer, and even a bit more dynamic than the 1644 versions. But, and this is an important but: if you are a member of the "true high res mafia" that's watching over the high sample rate recordings being issued by HD tracks, then you will not permit some of these masters I've made from seeing the light…